Communication apparatus for vehicle

Abstract

A communication apparatus for a vehicle achieves reduction in size and cost of a portable unit by making unnecessary an oscillation circuit and a battery in the portable unit. The apparatus is provided with an on-board unit installed on the vehicle and a portable unit carried by a user of the vehicle. A response signal is sent from the portable unit to the on-board unit in response to a signal transmitted from the on-board unit. The portable unit includes a power generation circuit for supplying electric power to circuits in the portable unit by a power generation radio wave sent from the on-board unit, and the on-board unit sends a communication signal after sending the power generation radio wave.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a communication apparatus for a vehicle that is adapted to be applied to a vehicular electronic key system, etc., and more particularly, it relates to a suitable technique when an electronic key is applied to a passive entry system in which the electronic key operates as a portable unit to lock and unlock doors of a vehicle in a simple and easy manner. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] As a conventional communication apparatus for a vehicle, there has been known a vehicular lock control apparatus which uses an electronic key as a portable unit (see, for instance, a first patent document: Japanese examined patent application publication No. H03-60696). [0005] The vehicular communication apparatus or vehicular lock control apparatus as described in the first patent document is provided with a portable unit (transmitter-receiver) having a microcomputer and a memory built t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] Accordingly, the present invention is intended to solve the problems as referred to above, and has for its object to obtain a communication apparatus for a vehicle which is capable of achieving reduction in size and cost of a portable unit by making unnecessary an oscillation circuit and a battery in the portable unit.

[0020] According to the present invention, by the provision of a circuit that generates electric power to drive circuits in the portable unit upon reception a radio wave from the on-board unit, a power supply (battery, etc.) and an oscillation circuit in the portable unit are made unnecessary, whereby the area occupied by the circuits in the portable unit is reduced and battery replacement due to consumption of the battery life becomes unnecessary, thus making it possible to obtain a communication apparatus for a vehicle in which reduction in cost and size of the portable unit is achieved.

Problems solved by technology

In the conventional communication apparatus for a vehicle, there is a problem that the oscillation circuit need be built in the portable unit, and a power supply and a power supply circuit for driving a transmission and reception circuit (the oscillation circuit, the modulation circuit and the demodulation circuit), the microcomputer and the memory are also required.

In particular, though a battery can be used as the power supply for the portable unit, power consumption is large in the vehicular communication apparatus in which frequent communications are carried out between the portable unit and the vehicle side, so there is a problem that the battery life is short and the frequency of battery replacement becomes high.

Further, there is also a problem that the area occupied by the power supply circuit becomes large, thus resulting in an increase in size of the portable unit.

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